One of the few painters in Impressionist style in Kentucky at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, Paul Sawyier was born at Table Rock in Madison County, Ohio on March 23, 1865, on his Grandfather Sawyier's farm. When he was five years old, his parents, Dr. Nathaniel and Ellen Wingate Sawyier, moved with their four children to Frankfort, Kentucky. The family lived with Ellen's mother, Mrs. Penelope Anderson Wingate, who resided on Broadway across from the L&N Railroad Depot.

Paul Sawyier's artistic talent became apparent during his early years. His father had an art tutor come to the Sawyier home for Paul and his sister, Natalie. At the age of 19, in 1884, Sawyier studied portraiture under Thomas S. Noble at the Cincinnati Art Aca...